Battlefield 1 has a series of different characters that players take control of during the single-player campaign, and each of those characters have their own story that unfolds over the course of several missions. If you’re curious about how those stories end, this article covers and explains each of Battlefield 1‘s endings.
The first campaign story follows a tank driver going by the name of Danny Edwards. The British solder is thrust into the war, unprepared and unready. He’s accompanied by four others inside the tank named Bess, and as they roll out they find themselves in the heat of battle. The tank’s mechanic is killed after the engine stalls and he and Edwards step out to repair it, and another member is shot when the Germans overthrow the tank a little later on after it gets stuck in the mud, resulting in Edwards having to let the dove fly loose to warn central command, who end up using artillery on their position to wipe out the German ground troops.
Edwards and the last two crew members battle on to finish their mission but the superior officer, Townsend, is wounded. They finally manage to clear out a road through the train yard and take down a convoy of German troops, but the tank ends up getting overrun again, only this time Bess doesn’t survive the ordeal and the tank commander, Townsend, uses his last remaining bullets to shoot a leaking fuel line within Bess to blow up the tank and take out the Germans.
Edwards and the last remaining tank crew member, McManus – who was shot in the stomach – trek their way back to the British base after the whole ordeal.
The second campaign story follows Jonathan Blacburn, who is a gambler and a pilot. He bests another pilot in a gambling match named George Rackham. The British pilot, Rackham, is left tied to a chair after Blackburn cheats and steals Rackham’s plane. Blackburn ends up teaming up with another British pilot named Wilson after he impersonates Rackham. Wilson is a straight shooter and plays by the book; Blackburn is a loose cannon and only cares about himself.
The duo manage to complete a few missions but their plane ends up getting shot down behind enemy lines. Wilson ends up getting wounded and trapped at the plane while Blackburn has to trek through the German trenches to make his way back to the downed plane. Blackburn finds Wilson alive but barely able to move, and contemplates killing Wilson and making his way back to the British command post alone. Wilson guilt-trips Blackburn into helping him instead of killing him, and Blackburn manages to carry Wilson back to the British post where the real George Rackham comes in to arrest Blackburn.
During his haul back to the judicial council where he would stand trial, the ship that they were on ends up getting attacked and George Rackham is killed in the process. Blackburn and Wilson take flight in one of the planes on board the ship and shoot down a Zeppelin in the process, however the plane is also shot down and the two end up on top of a Zeppelin, using the turrets to bring it down over the Thames. While the Zeppelin is going up in flames, Blackburn, Wilson and another German soldier jump off into the water.
Blackburn emerges from the river with a smile on his face, and explains that since he’s telling the story he’s the hero. Alternatively, the real story is that Blackburn stole the plane from Rackham, teamed up with Wilson, helped guard bombers who blew up a German fortress, ended up getting shot down behind enemy lines, killed Wilson so he wouldn’t blow his cover, ended up getting arrested, and managed to escape during an air raid.
The next story is a short one and takes place across an Italian mountainside. It involves two best friends and brothers thrust into the heart of the war, fighting for country and survival. Matteo Cocchiola and Luca Vincenzo Cocchiola are tasked with taking the mountainside in the chapter called “Avanti Savoia”.
The story follows Luca attempting to carry out his mission and protect his brother Matteo by preventing the enemy troops from advancing on his group’s position. However, despite his best efforts – fighting off fighter planes and taking out a bunker of troops – Matteo’s group ends up getting cut off from the rest of the Arditi during an air-raid that takes down a mountain. The Germans end up killing Matteo much to Luca’s grief, who ends up completing his mission but at the cost of his brother.
The story “The Runner” is about an Aussie group fighting against the Ottoman empire.
Federick Bishop and a young soldier named Jack Foster. Bishop doesn’t want kids like Foster on the front line, but they end up there anyway. After charging through the beachfront where the Ottomans have setup fortifications, Bishop and Foster end up grouping up with some Kiwis and Aussies at a forward base. However, their attempts to break through the Ottoman troops and press forward are nullified and church they tried to take in order to secure a front ends up failing.
Bishop finds himself running back and forth across the battlefield delivering messages while narrowly escaping death, all the meanwhile trying to ensure that Foster avoids direct combat. His efforts prove futile when the British set to bombard the front with artillery fire and mount a retreat. One of the forts where Foster and others are holed up is one of the targets of the British artillery. Bishop heads to the fort to rescue Foster and the other Aussie soldiers while narrowly dodging the Ottoman soldiers.
In order to help them secure a successful retreat back to the boats, Bishop decides to stay behind and draw away the Ottoman soldiers while Foster and the other soldiers head back to the boats. During the ensuing firefight, Bishop is shot in the back by a soldier while reaching the top of the spire, just in time to see that Foster is able to shoot off a flare to signify that he and the others made it back to the boats safely. Bishop dies while the British bombard the fort with artillery fire.
The last and final chapter centers around Zara… a spy working with the Arabians under Lawrence of Arabia. She first manages to take out the Ottomans around a wrecked train, securing codes to communicate with a war train that has been wrecking havoc against the Arabians.
Zara must manage to sneak into three different Ottoman camps and send off the messages to the “Iron Dragon” to lure it into a trap set by Lawrence and the rest of the rebel fighters.
After luring the train through the ambush, Zara and the others blow it off the tracks, ending the Ottoman’s railway reign of terror.
The story for Zara ends with T.E. Lawrence asking her if she knows anything about battleships. The game ends with a voiceover talking about the heroes who lived and died during the war, interspersed with a collage of clips from the previous chapters of Battlefield 1‘s story mode.
